A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints

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All Rise...

Judge Adam Arseneau says this DVD came with a free pith helmet and butterfly net.

The Charge

Sometimes the only way to move forward is to go back.

Opening Statement

Winner of Best Ensemble and Best Director at Sundance, A Guide To
Recognizing Your Saints is the story of one man's life growing up in Queens
in the 1980s. Despite its ensemble cast, it skimmed under the radar
theatrically, but has made it to DVD with full impact.

Facts of the Case

"My name's Dito. I'm gonna leave everybody in this film."

Astoria, Queens. 1980s. In one of the most violent and turbulent
neighborhoods of New York City, Dito (Shia LaBeouf, Holes, Transformers) and his friends run
rampant through their neighborhood, chasing girls, drinking and getting into
fights. His friend Antonio (Channing Tatum, She's the Man, Step Up,) abused by his father, translates
his endless aggression to the streets, terrorizing anyone who crosses their
paths. For these teens, the streets are their homes. Dito's mother (Dianne
Wiest, The Horse Whisperer)
worries about him, but his father (Chazz Palminteri, The Usual Suspects) sees little
wrong with his son's friends and activities. As a graduate of the same streets,
he knows only the neighborhood.

When a foreign exchange student from Scotland comes to Dito's class, Dito is
suddenly introduced to a world he never knew existed. For him, there was only
Astoria, but now, he finds himself obsessed with music, literature, and a desire
to break away from his roots and see the world. This desire only intensifies
when Antonio begins clashing with the Reapers, a Puerto Rican gang from uptown,
drawing Dito into a circle of endless violence.

Now in the present day, decades later, an older Dito (Robert Downey, Jr., A Scanner Darkly, Good Night and
Good Luck), having long abandoned his life in search of better times in
California, receives word that his father is ill. He returns to his old
neighborhood, to the people he abandoned, to find much has changed in Astoria,
but little has with the people. Reconnecting with his mother and his old
girlfriend (Rosario Dawson, Clerks II) comes
easy, but his father is another matter altogether.

The Evidence

A cinematic adaptation of an autobiography is a rare thing, doubly so when
the individual who wrote the book on himself gets to write and direct the motion
picture as well. First-time writer/director Dito Montiel, a hardcore musician
from NYC (previously in the bands Major Conflict and Gutterboy), graduated to
author and sold his fictionalized autobiography "A Guide to Recognizing
Your Saints" in 2001 to publishers to great critical acclaim. In a rare
privilege not given to many writers, Montiel himself was given the privilege of
adapting and directing his own material for its cinematic debut.

Radically different from his memoirs, the narrative structure is a twister
at first to get your head around, in what could only be called a continuation of
a pseudo-biography. Robert Downey Jr. plays current-day Dito Montiel, the
real-life author returned home to his family. Shia LeBeouf plays the young Dito
during flashback sequences. What is interesting is how the characters in the
present timeline reference the novel, suggesting this film takes place after the
book itself is released, making this film less a direct adaptation and more a
continuation of the novel. The book, a Kerouac-esque tale of New York during the
1980s, a wild punk rock ride through the fashion and music, the people and
neighborhoods that personified a generation, is nothing like this movie. The
film is radically microscopic in its adaptation, focusing instead on Dito's
personal relationships with his family and friends, especially with his father,
and the motivations that inspired him to break away from their gravitational
pull. A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints feels like memoirs of memoirs,
layers upon layers of self-referencing material.

The impossible choice made by Dito between his family and friends and having
a life of possibility is the lynchpin holding the film together. A foreign
exchange kid from Scotland named Mike introduces Dito to another world outside
of Queens in conversations about literature and poetry and music. Dito realizes
exactly what a life in Queens represents: a smoldering crater, a cesspool of
anger and resentment and imprisonment for its denizens. Its walls are invisible,
but iron-clad. Once Dito realizes exactly who his friends are (in an amazing
sequence of self-referential fourth-wall breaking) there is no turning back for
him. Unfortunately, Dito is the support in this house of cards, and the more he
tries to wiggle free, the more precarious things become. His family, his
friends, everyone suffers in increasing magnitude, until the entire house
tumbles down.

Hanging out on stoops, subway stations and street corners, drinking cheap
liquor and getting into fights, these guys make the Warriors from Coney look
like punks. The director's attention to detail and dialogue often creates an
incomprehensible slew of hollering and cursing between characters, where the
only recognizable spurts of dialogue are words starting with "F" and
"S." Personally, I had to put the subtitles on just to find out what
the hell was being said. Lord knows I never thought I'd be the kind of guy to
ever complain about excessive profanity, but if you took all the curse words out
of A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints, the movie would be twenty minutes
long.

The ensemble cast turn out excellent performances, notably those of Antonio
(Channing Tatum) and Monty (Chazz Palminteri). Antonio's father abuses him,
translating into absurd levels of aggression in young Antonio, and his
over-the-top performance is quite riveting and intense. Monty, a tough kid from
the neighborhood, is virtually identical to every other role Chazz plays, but
his portrayal as a sickly older man is passionate and above reproach. The
relationship formed between Antonio and Monty is one of the more interesting
elements, Monty being more supportive to Antonio than to his old son at times,
and Antonio resenting Dito for not appreciating the father figure he takes for
granted. LeBeouf and Downey Jr. play perfect book-ends to Dito, mimicking the
same blank face and twitchy persona well enough, but LeBeouf out-acts the
veteran Downey easily with much more dramatic material to work with. Rosario
Dawson is fantastic in everything she does, but her screen time amounts to mere
minutes, which is unfortunate. I feel the film had much to say there, on the
subject of broken hearts, but chose to focus on the father rather than the girl,
leaving Dawson out in the cold.

The transfer is clean and sharp, with saturated primary colors and excellent
black levels. Night shots are clean and free from grain, while daytime shots
show no noticeable print damage. It is a great looking transfer for a film of
this budget. The editing is aggressive and at times excessive, with quick cuts
and various trickeries giving the film a very film school-looking appearance.
For a first-time director, Montiel is clearly talented, but it remains to be
seen whether or not he can translate his skills into a project further from his
heart.

Both the 5.1 and 2.0 tracks are sharp and bass-thin, with dialogue extremely
frenetic and natural, overlapping in incoherent hollers and shouting between
angry family and friends. Constant volume adjustment is necessary no matter
which track you pick. The 5.1 sounds better realized in space, but makes little
use of its rear channels. The score is a mix of ambient piano music and a
fantastic cross-section of classic rock from the late '70s and '80s that fits
the film perfectly.

In terms of extras, we go all out here. The commentary track, with
writer/director Dito Montiel and editor Jake Pushinsky, is extremely informative
and energetic, with Montiel expressing all manner of opinion and insight into
the sequences of his re-created life. A twenty-minute making-of documentary
accompanies, with excellent interviews with cast and crew, as well as an
alternate opening and four alternate endings (never a good sign). In addition,
we get some deleted scenes, an expanded rooftop scene, some trailers and
previews, an interview with the real Monty, and the audition sequence with Diana
Carcamo, a.k.a. young Laurie. For a single-disc release, this is a fantastic and
full offering of material.

The Rebuttal Witnesses

When I first saw the trailer for A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints,
and then failed to see the film materialize in theaters near me, I was surprised
to see a movie with such an all-star cast make such a small box office
impression. After seeing the film, I understand. I'm not sure I've ever seen a
movie so blatantly and extraordinarily self-indulgent. This guy puts P. T.
Anderson to absolute shame.

Written by, directed by, based on true events from the life of, this is as
personal of a project as cinema can get. It may mean something to Dito, and I
would imagine it does, but it all comes at the expense and annoyance of the
audience. It is a film written for an audience of one, and only one.
Self-serving and vainglorious, we whine and cry our way through Dito coming to
terms with…what, moving away from home? Having some friends get killed?
Not connecting with their father? To be fair, this describes approximately 50%
of the population of Earth, and most of them have to deal with their issues
without the benefit of a Hollywood film to work out their issues with their
father.

Okay, okay, I'm being slightly indecorous here. In all fairness, if I were
Dito, and all this happened to me, I'd probably have to write a book and movie
like this too to get it all off my chest, too. And you can bet it would be
self-indulgent too. Good for him, I say.

Closing Statement

A challenging and emotional beatdown through the memories of a jaded kid in
Astoria, A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints is a hard film to love, but
incredibly easy to appreciate and admire. As memoirs about friends and family,
bad choices, and good intentions go, it may be self-indulgent by its very
nature, but its story and film making make it a well-crafted and emotionally
powerful tale with its heart in the right place. Love it or hate it, most people
can only wish for a cinematic debut this good.